


Happy Screams

by TheLostSister



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Growing Up, Hopper being a dad, Jopper, Post Season 3, because im broken, reunited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 21:29:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19732120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLostSister/pseuds/TheLostSister
Summary: "Happy screams, what are happy screams?" El asked, completely confused. She'd never read a Cosmo magazine...The day after Christmas in 1985, El accidentally learns what happy screams are.





	Happy Screams

**Author's Note:**

> This is post season 3 after they bring Hopper home from Russia.

Two weeks ago when her dad finally came home, El knew that Christmas this year was going to be the best one yet. She had two brothers, a mom, and a dad.

A whole family.

And that was all she ever could have wanted for Christmas, but the presents under the tree were a pretty good bonus too.

They spent Christmas day eating homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and opening presents until almost lunchtime. It was also the first day that she heard Hopper laugh, like an actual laugh, since he’d been back home, and she realized that was her favorite gift of all.

Joyce had explained to her that he’d been through some very intense things while he was gone, and it was going to take him some time to get back to his normal self. El understood exactly what that was like, so she made sure not to treat him any differently than she would have before he went missing. It was how he had always treated her when she first moved in with him and so she knew she could do the same for him.

That night, Hopper came to her bedroom to tuck her in, something they hadn’t done in many months, since long before he even went missing.

El quickly hung up her phone call with Mike. She was going to see him tomorrow, but she had wanted to call him on her own, private phone that she had gotten as a present for her bedroom.

El sat up and smiled when she saw him. He sat down on the edge of her bed and kissed her forehead. “Today was a really good day. Thank you,” El said quietly, giving him a hug. Hopper understood that she was thanking him for more than just the telephone and other presents.

“I really love my gifts too,” he answered back anyway. Feelings still weren’t something he shared very easily.

El had gotten him a new pair of pajamas and a framed picture that Jonathan had taken of the two of them post the Snowball dance. It was the only picture she had with him before he went away. Now that Hopper was back, she made sure Jonathan was constantly taking pictures of him, of them, of him and Joyce…Everyone, all the time. Pictures reminded her of memories, and she realized that she needed those because when someone was gone, it was so hard to remember everything about them.

Hopper stood up and El climbed under the covers. He pulled the blankets up, tucking them in around her, just like he had what seemed like so long ago now. In reality, he had tucked her into bed last Christmas too, but that’s just about when everything had started to change, when he was really reminded that she wasn’t a little kid anymore.

“Get some sleep. You guys are leaving pretty early tomorrow,” he reminded her.

El nodded and smiled at that thought, though she felt a little sad to be leaving Hopper so soon after he returned. He planted one last kiss on the top of her head.

“Good night,” he told her, turning her bedside lamp off.

El smiled when he did that, remembering how he used to leave her lamp on for her until she fell asleep.

She didn’t need him to do that anymore now that there wasn’t anything to be afraid of. At least, not on her part. Hopper still had to deal with the very real realization that his daughter was still growing up, and that was more terrifying than anything else he’d been through.

The next morning, the kids ate a quick breakfast and said goodbye to their parents, leaving them both sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on two cups of coffee.

About 20 minutes into the drive to Hawkins, El realized she had forgotten one of Mike’s Christmas presents at home. She begged Jonathan to _please_ turn the car around because she didn’t know when the next time she would see him would be. It was snowing heavily, and Jonathan really didn’t want to add an extra 40 minutes on to their already slower than usual drive, but he had a soft spot for El, so he relented.

When they got back to the house El ran inside, tracking snow up the staircase as she sprinted to her bedroom. She didn’t have time to see that her parents were no longer at the kitchen table or the fact that they weren’t even downstairs anymore.

She ran up to her room and found the box she had hidden in her closet. El knew it was stupid that she even hid it because Mike hadn’t been to their house since Thanksgiving, so there was no way he would have found it anyway. El pulled her closet door shut, ready to run back out to the car, and that’s when she heard it.

It was a sound that suddenly had her quite concerned. It sounded like Joyce, and after a few seconds of listening, Hopper too. And they were…in pain?

El listened again for a minute to be sure before she walked down the hallway towards Joyce and Hopper’s bedroom where the noises were coming from.

The bedroom door was wide open, and El froze in the doorway when she saw the two adults in bed…and both completely naked. Joyce was on top of Hopper straddling his hips, her hands planted on his shoulders. His hands were gripped tightly on her hips, and they were so involved that they didn’t notice her standing there.

It took El a moment to determine that neither of them were in _pain_ , and then she immediately realized she really wasn’t meant to be watching this. It seemed like a very private moment, but she was intrigued and curious, and for some reason, her feet were frozen in place.

Not a single one of the three of them even heard the front door open again until they heard the yelling.

“EL! What’s taking so long?!” Will called from the bottom of the staircase.

Joyce and Hopper both swore and turned to their open doorway where El stood wide eyed, with a deer in the headlights look on her face.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Hopper swore again yanking the covers up and over the two of them.

“I’m sorry. I-“ El held up the present in her hands as an explanation, but otherwise didn’t move.

“El, close the door!” Hopper yelled back at her.

El stood frozen for another few seconds, until he yelled at her again. “El!”

She stepped forward and pulled the handle shut, just as Will was coming up the steps.

“Coming!” El yelled, quickly turning around to greet Will before he got any further down the hall.

“What’s going on?” Will asked.

“Nothing,” El promised shaking her head, though the look on her face told him she had been lying.

“Oh-kay,” Will answered slowly, following El back down the steps.

Back in the bedroom, Hopper covered his face with his hands and groaned. “Oh my god, no. Please tell me that did not just happen.”

“We have to talk to her before she leaves,” Joyce urged, yanking on the first pair of clothes she could find.

“What?! No. No,” Hopper replied, not moving from his spot on the bed. “We all just pretend this never happened.”

Joyce shook her head at him and rolled her eyes. She knew they couldn’t leave this undiscussed.

“You. YOU have to talk to her then,” he clarified when he saw that Joyce wasn’t going to let it go.

Joyce paused at the doorway. “Does she know about sex?”

“I don’t know!” he exclaimed.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You never had the _talk_ with her?”

“GOD no. No.”

“Seriously Jim?” Joyce raised her eyebrows at him in disapproval.

He threw his hands up in the air and rolled over in bed, burying his face in his pillow. Joyce shook her head and left him alone in bed, rushing down the hallway and stairs to catch El before she left again. The two kids were already outside.

“El,” she called, stepping out on to the porch. Both kids turned to look at her. She was wearing her pajama pants and Hopper’s too large, pajama shirt. Will pulled his eyebrows together questioning his mom’s clothes. It wasn’t what she had been wearing before they left earlier.

“Yeah?” El’s voice was cautious and her hand hovered over the car door handle.

Joyce’s feet were too cold standing out on the snowy porch, and she hopped back and forth a little. “Can you come back inside for a minute?”

El looked back at the car.

“We really have to go,” she replied softly. She didn’t want to go back inside because she was pretty sure she was in trouble, even though it was an accident. She didn’t know why she had watched them for as long as she did.

“Just for a second, sweetie. Will, tell your brother that El will be back in a minute.”

El knew she had to go, so she handed Will Mike’s present to take to the car. Will shrugged his shoulders and climbed back into the warm vehicle.

El turned around and followed Joyce back inside.

“I’m sorry,” El whispered when the front door shut behind them. She looked to the floor.

Joyce touched her arm. “Honey, no. I’m sorry. We didn’t hear that anyone had come back in. We didn’t mean for you to see that.” She paused and took a breath. El was certainly old enough for this conversation. “You, um, well, you know about sex, right?”

El shrugged and briefly flicked her eyes to Joyce and then back down.

Sex.

She’d heard the word before on tv. She had even looked it up in her dictionary, but that hadn’t been very helpful. It led her to looking up one word after another, and in the end, nothing really ended up making any sense.

“That was sex?” El asked quietly, her eyes widening at the realization.

“Uh, yeah. Yes,” Joyce tried to answer confidently.

“Oh,” El replied thinking about what she saw again. “Then those were…happy screams?” She picked her head up a little to see Joyce’s response.

“What?” Joyce lifted her eyebrows, not exactly following.

“Happy screams,” El repeated. “Max told me once that sometimes when a boy and girl are together they make…” she paused trying to remember exactly what her friend had said. “Crazy noises. Happy screams.”

Joyce attempted to suppress a smile, but it was hard. Sometimes she forgot just how innocent El was.

“Uh, yeah. Those were…happy screams,” she laughed.

El nodded and smiled too, but her expression quickly turned serious again. “Is he mad?” she nodded towards the steps.

“No, he’s not mad,” Joyce promised. “It’s just you, uh, surprised us. That’s all. And I’m sorry he never explained this sort of stuff to you. It’s…hard for him to talk about those kinds of things with you, but I’m sure you already know that. He still sees you as a little girl, even though you are quite grown up.”

El nodded in understanding.

“And, I want you to know, if you have questions about that sort of stuff, you can always ask me anything.”

El nodded again but didn’t ask anything more.

“Okay, sweetie,” Joyce sighed. “Maybe don’t mention this to anyone else. I think your dad would die of embarrassment,” she laughed.

El laughed too and promised, “I won’t.”

“I truly am so sorry. Kids are never supposed to see their parents like _that,_ ” Joyce grimaced again.

“It’s okay,” El smiled, with a shrug. She didn’t really see what the big deal was, other than the fact that she saw them both without their clothes on. El thought it was sweet that her parents loved each other enough to do…well…do what she saw them doing.

Joyce reached for her and brought her close for a hug. “Okay,” she sighed. “Call us when you get there. And have a fun!”

El reached for the front door, but then turned around.

“You too,” El smiled, giving Joyce a knowing look.

Joyce couldn’t help but laugh as she watched El run back outside to the car. She waited until the car was down the road before heading back upstairs.

Hopper hadn’t moved from where he was since she left. He was laying on his stomach, with a pillow pulled over his head. Joyce closed the door with a soft click, and Hopper sighed, peeking his head out.

“How’d that go,” he finally muttered, though he didn’t even want to know. Joyce climbed under the covers with him, laying down behind him.

“She told us to have fun,” she whispered, resting her head on his bare shoulder.

“No. No. No,” he groaned.

Joyce giggled. “Uh-huh.”

“Uggggh. Everyone was so worried about what I went through when I was gone. But let me tell you, THIS is way more traumatic for me than _any_ of that.”

“Well maybe, if she had some idea of what had been going on, she wouldn’t have come down the hallway to investigate.”

“Jesus, you know… I didn’t want her to get any ideas. She was already spending so much time with Mike,” he trailed off, but Joyce laughed.

“And you thought if you told her about sex, she’d just rip his clothes off and go at it the next time she saw him?”

“Please stop talking,” he begged, pressing his eyes closed.

“Jim, the poor girl’s almost 15. I’ll have to get her a book before she has to learn it all from her friends.”

“Yes. A book. Great. Just as long as it doesn’t involve me.”

Joyce giggled and wrapped her arms around him. “I think the kids are really gone this time. I’d say it’s safe to finish what we started…” she whispered.

Hopper rolled over to face her. “No. Uh-uh. We aren’t doing that ever again,” he answered seriously.

“So you’re telling me, I’ll have to take care of it all by myself,” Joyce teased, pulling his pajama shirt back off.

“Joyce, you’re killing me,” he groaned with a smirk, pulling her close for a kiss.


End file.
